Saturday, April 14, 2007

HOME

Gray mist hung over the placeI once called HomeJust as it didIn fresher winters of youth.The banana tree that bore no fruitStill stood beside the house.The rest was strange to me --Neglected, disheveled, collapsed,Like rags clingingTo a toothless, rasping bumWhose face is too familiar.And a world that seemed so hugeAnd ripe for winningWas just a stunted miser,Clinging like dark, gray mistTo a place he now calls Home.

No comments:

All posts and other content Copyright 2007-16, by Jon Gregory. All rights reserved. This means do not copy without permission from the author.P.S.: This site will be under construction for a while. I invite visitors to revisit, as this online chapbook is in progress.

They Say That Life Imitates Art ...

But the imitation is so poor,I could never see the resemblance. -- JG

Blog Archive

The Dark Genius

About Me

Jon Gregory is a journalist and poet/writer living in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was born July 27, 1956, in Mathis, Texas, at 3:35 A.M. (They actually screwed up the time on his birth certificate. This is what his mother and the doctor recorded, and he thinks they were there.) His poems, short stories and essays have been published in The American Dissident, The Dallas Review, Contexas, The DFW Poetry Review, the Austin International Poetry Festival's annual anthology, in Map of Austin Poetry e-zine, and elsewhere. He has a B.A. from Texas Lutheran University, where he won two short-story prizes from the English department and was associate editor of the literary magazine; and an M.A. from Corpus Christi State University (now Texas A&M-CC). He is now a grateful refugee from academia. He doesn't usually write in synch with the times and trends; he also hates rejection, and he's impatient and lazy. So, he's actually done well to get this much published. He hopes that online self-publishing will be a lot better than doing the paper chapbooks that other poets sometimes reluctantly buy and often never read.

Bukowski: Maybe the Best Street Poet of Recent Times

Wrote way too much swill while drunk, but could dazzle on occasion. Got even better near the end of his life.

Still Another Brilliant Madman

Charles Baudelaire

Poetic Influences

Baudelaire, Poe, Yeats, and many individual poems, because many fine poets only hit the bull's eye of immortality a few times. But a few can be enough. "American Primitive" by William Jay Smith is a good example of one poem strong enough that the poet is mainly remembered for that one.

Literary Taste (Or Lack Thereof)

Favorite recently read novel: Young Lonigan (1932), first in the Studs Lonigan trilogy by James T. Farrell. It's not pretty, but it's a fascinating view of Chicago through the eyes of an ordinary would-be tough guy, circa 1916. Most compelling, if you don't mind a little grit and realism.

The Lizard King, First Police Mug

Didn't live long enough to fulfill his potential as a poet. But he hit the mark several times, mostly in The Doors' lyrics.

Most Underrated And/Or Favorite Modern Novels in English

The Young Manhood of Studs Lonigan (James T. Farrell, 1934) Second in the trilogy. I'm on the third one now.